WIHI: From Prehospital to In-Hospital: The Continuum for Time-Sensitive Care

Date: July 24, 2014

Featuring:

• Kedar Mate, MD, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• David Williams, PhD, Improvement Advisor and Founder, TrueSimple
• Jonathan R. Studnek, PhD, NRP, Quality Improvement Manager, Mecklenburg EMS Agency (North Carolina)
• Kevin Rooney, MBChB, FRCA, FFICM, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine; Professor of Care Improvement, University of the West of Scotland

When it comes to reliability, it’s hard to beat the track record of paramedics and EMTs. Whether it’s speed, knowing just what to do in the event of an accident, serious injury, gun violence, or heart attack, or the amazingly calm and reassuring way  emergency responders go about their work, there are plenty of reasons to heap praise on this group of individuals. This also includes how patients are cared for during that ambulance ride to the hospital emergency department.

 

Could our opinion of EMTs get even higher? Maybe so, now that emergency medical services (EMS) are becoming part of fully integrated health care systems and paramedics are being trained and equipped to initiate even more life-saving and beneficial treatments in the field. Our guides — Kedar Mate, David Williams, Johnathan Studnek, and Kevin Rooney — have a compelling story to tell about dramatic changes underway with EMS, not just in the US but globally. The very use of the term “prehospital” reflects new strategies and capabilities to respond more effectively to patients suffering heart attacks, strokes, and traumatic injuries.This is the evolution we explore on this WIHI.